The Simulacrum

As I mentioned before, the Abyss had to get creative when adapting human technology. The electric grid could be easily supplied by a few hydroelectric plants and jury-rigged wind turbines, relying on the predictable weather patterns of the island. The lack of fossil fuels was a bit more problematic, but cars were generally owned by the nobility, and they could afford to smuggle in gasoline from the outside. Steam engines, though? Well, that was a different story.

Sure, coal could be substituted by charcoal, but the Abyss had only so many trees. What they had in abundance was manual labour and magic, and so that's what they used to compensate.

"Wow! This is so much cooler than I thought it would be!"

Penny wasn't alone in that assessment, as the rest of the gang also nodded or grunted in agreement in the engine room of the ship. Realising that this was their first time riding a paddle boat (or any boat, I reckon), the jolly captain was all too eager to give them a guided tour. Surprisingly enough, that also included the large chamber in the middle of the boat, dominated by a mass of metal pipes and gauges surrounding a large boiler attached to the heavy machinery of the engine.

At the moment, the whole group was watching intently as a shirtless middle-aged Abyssal made a series of long, complicated arm movements in front of the round door of the firebox. His upper body was surprisingly toned, and it, along with the engine room, was illuminated by a pair of brightly glowing fireballs in his hands. As he moved, they drew bright traces in the air that lingered for several seconds.

A couple of others, including the captain and one of the deckhands from before, were standing next to the gang and clapping or tapping their feet in unison, some even humming a wordless song. Abyssals had a Celestial heritage, and the latter's magic was based on melodies and harmonics, so I couldn't help but wonder if this was a vestige of that, or if they were only serving as a sort of human metronome to keep the dancer in the middle in the rhythm. Or maybe, just maybe, this whole thing was just a big theatrical performance they put up for the kids. After all, if the villagers mistook them for Abyssal noble scions travelling incognito once, it could've happened a second time, so catering to them and making a show of the refuelling process for their entertainment made some sense.

At last, the man in the middle let out a sharp breath and brought his hands in front of his chest. The two fireballs merged into one, and then, with a posture that reminded me of a famous spiky-haired martial artist readying his big blue beam attack, he pushed it through the aperture of the furnace. All the gauges around the machinery sprang to life, but once the door was closed and one of the engineers pulled a few levers, everything normalised, and the shirtless Abyssal raised his hands to his chest again before moving them down, kind of like a martial artist after finishing a kata.

My knightly sister took that as the signal that the 'performance' was over and she started clapping, with the rest belatedly following after her, much to the man's visible embarrassment. Meanwhile, Judy was busy taking notes, and I didn't even have to peek at her notepad to know why.

If we were back on Critias, this man would’ve been a basic placeholder at best. His showing a reaction, let alone a sheepish one like that, would've been an outlier, yet down here in the Abyss, he was more of a rule than an exception. It once again drove home the idea that the Abyss, as the all-but-confirmed setting of a previous scenario, was generally more 'developed' than Critias, and that reflected on the common Abyssals as well.

But back to the scene. As soon as the 'refuelling process' was done, the captain let out a satisfied chuckle and turned to the gang with an ear-to-ear grin.

"See? I told ye it'd be an interestin' watch, did I not?"

Ammy immediately responded with an unusually eager, "It was certainly educational! Next time, can I give it a try?"

"Arr, I see ye be a keen one, but I reckon that furnace be fine 'til we make port, har har!"

"And when will that be?" Josh chimed in with a question, making the captain rub his chin for a moment.

"Aye, 'bout three hours, I'd wager."

"In that case, we should settle down and rest a bit." A beat later, he amended, "And prepare."

"Thank you for the tour!" Penny exclaimed on the side, bringing another smile to the man's face.

"Aye, no need t' mention it, ye scallywag! We ain't got no fancy cabins, but ye can use th' mess up th' deck 'til we reach port, savvy?"

Josh frowned, but soon gave up and turned to the girl on his left, "Erm… Lili? Translation, please?"

"He says we can use the commons room above deck until we arrive."

He whispered a soft 'Thanks,' and then smiled back at the man.

"Thank you, we'll do just that."

He wasn't mincing his words, because they quickly left the engine room and headed to the large cabin on the main deck. It was the first place they were shown, and by retracing their steps, the group soon settled down there once again. It was called a 'commons room', but if anything, it kind of reminded me of the waiting room at a coach station; a rectangular floor plan with large windows on all sides and benches set by the walls, as well as in the middle.

It wasn't exactly high-class, but said benches all had cast iron frames, and it was clean enough. This was primarily a cargo ship, if the captain's bragging was to be believed, but since there were so few boats commuting here in the ass-end of the Abyss, they had this one spot set aside for passengers, and by the looks of it, it could easily carry about thirty people when necessary.

It was only the gang on board at the moment, which meant they had the whole place for themselves, yet they didn't spread out. They clustered around Josh as soon as they put down their baggage, and he was ready to start some kind of last-minute meeting, except…

"Look, Angie! Narwhals!" the princess cried out in delight, with the Celestial girl practically hopping with excitement by her side.

"Wooow! Awesome! Guys, look! They are real…" She fell silent and squinted at the group of horned sea creatures. "Wait. Aren't narwhals supposed to be really big?"

"Maybe they are horned dolphins?" Elly proposed on the spot, and when she looked at her funny, she hastily clarified, "Think about it. The boar Penny caught had a horn, and the rabbit we saw in the woods had antlers. Maybe dolphins also have horns here."

"That… makes a lot of sense, actually. Should we ask the captain what they're called?"

"Good idea!"

Elly was eager to get going, but they both froze up when Josh pointedly cleared his throat.

"Guys, can you do that later? This is important."

"Aw, fine," Angie relented with an over-exaggerated shrug and morosely walked over to the rest of the group, with the princess following closely behind her.

Once they all settled down, the guy cleared his throat again and spoke in a low voice, as if afraid that the boat crew would listen in on them over the sound of the waves and the engine.

"Let's make sure we're all on the same page, okay? Who can tell me what our primary goal is?" The girls were surprised by the sudden question, but Judy dutifully raised her hand, much to Josh's thinly veiled irritation. "Yes, I know that you know, I just want to know if the others remember as well."

After a short beat, Snowy also raised her hand.

"We need to get Amelia near a Mana Well."

"Yes, that's the end-goal," Josh affirmed with a deep nod. "If we didn't get thrown off-track by that portal accident, getting access to the Mana Well of House Shamash would've been a given, but as is, getting to the Ninhurshags is our best bet. As for how we get to their Mana Well… that's gonna be tricky, but first we should try diplomacy. Lili?"

"Yes?"

"You said we can't use the token the vampire lady gave us, right?"

He was apparently referring to some previous discussion I must've missed, because Snowy nodded along like it was self-evident.

"That's right. House Ninhursag is… um… not like the other Noble Houses."

"It's because they have an Elder Council that balances the main branch of the family," Angie chimed in with a proud little smirk. "You see? I've been paying attention."

"Yes, sure," Josh whispered a tad patronizingly, but the Celestial girl didn't seem to mind. Meanwhile, he tapped a finger on his chin and asked, "So at the end of the day, we'll have to get the main family's approval to get to their Mana Well."

Snowy raised her hand and said, "I'm not sure it'll work out like that." Josh gestured for her to continue, so she sucked in a deep breath and told him, "House Ninhursag is currently doing its best to avoid participating in the civil war. If we ask them for access in the name of House Shamash, then they will most likely refuse us on those grounds, but if we don't use their name, then they'll have no reason to even consider giving us access."

"So the diplomatic route is a bust," Josh concluded, but then Angie chimed in again.

"Let's not be hasty. Maybe we can do a quest for them to get in their good graces, or something."

Josh squinted as his girlfriend, but seeing that she was serious, he eventually let out an exasperated sigh and sternly told her, "Take this seriously."

"But I'm always serious!"

In the end, he decided to ignore her and return to the discussion.

"What are our alternatives?"

"We can sneak in!" Penny cut in with a daredevil grin. "Just leave it to me! I'm getting really good at it!"

At this point, Ammy reached for her glasses and said, "Not that I don't trust you, but does that help me get in there?"

"I can find a good infiltration route," Penny argued back, and then pointed at my other sister. "Oh, oh! And Snowy can also come along, and she can disable the security with her Sigils."

"W-Wait, I only said that I m-may be able to do that," Snowy objected at once while nervously fiddling with her fingers. "I can't say for sure until we get there."

"But if you disable the security, won't they realize something's wrong?" Elly asked a pivotal question, and Josh responded readily.

"They'll figure out something's up as soon as Ammy connects to the Mana Well anyway. The better question is, what do we do after that?"

Judy chose this moment to say, "In the worst-case scenario, we'll become public enemy number one of House Ninhursag, it'll be used as a casus belli, and they'll enter the civil war on the side of House Inanna."

Her assessment made the class rep have a double-take, and she uttered, "But… But if the plan works, then it won't matter!"

"That's why I called it a worst-case scenario," Judy insisted. "There are also several fracture points in the plan that we have to take into account. Such as what we should do if you can't connect to the Mana Well."

"But I can! Grimmy says I can!"

"Yes, and she's a Celestial AI a thousand years out of date. We can't take everything she says for granted, so we should come up with an exit strategy, just in case."

Much to everyone's surprise, Angie backed her up with a firm, "That's a good point! We shouldn't put all our eggs into the same basket, especially when we can still fall back on the other Mana Wells! Or at least that's what Deus says…"

"I guess taking a direct approach is also out of the question," Penny mused, prompting Josh to raise a critical brow at her.

"Direct approach?"

Before she could answer, Elly responded with a rather flippant, "Breaking down the front door and beating up everyone in our way," as if that was reasonable.

"Yeah, that's what I meant," Penny doubled down, and I was once again reminded that despite their centuries-old feud, Draconians and the Knights were weirdly similar in their thought processes.

"No, absolutely not," Josh stated in a tone that bore no objection.

"I also don't recommend it," Snowy commented a touch wearily. "The Mana Well is the most well-defended area of every Noble House's castle. It will most likely have multiple layers of wards, dozens of guards, with hundreds more joining as soon as the alarms ring. Not to mention the Faun Ninhursag. If we try to gain forced entry, we'll turn everyone in the castle our enemies, and unlike the other Noble Houses, their forces would be stationed in their capital."

"Right, because the others are spread thinner due to participating in the civil war," Elly noted, and seeing that her eyes were lighting up with excitement, Josh decided to nip it in the bud.

"No, we're not going to attack another House. We don't even know where they are."

"I know where House Nergal's castle is," Snowy volunteered, but then hastily retracted it. "B-But getting there would take too long, and if we run into Noir there…"

Her words trailed into silence, and after a few long seconds, Josh crossed his arms and summarised the discussion.

"In short, our best bet is to try diplomacy first. If that fails, Penelope can scout the castle. If sneaking in turns out to be too difficult, then we find a way to regroup with the vampire lady at the Shamash family. We'll avoid direct confrontation unless we're attacked first. Any objections?" Seeing that nobody was raising any, the guy let out a troubled noise, as if just realising that their plans weren't exactly foolproof. It would've probably ended there, if not for the inexplicably hard-coded and borderline inescapable rules of dramatic irony rearing their collective ugly heads at this moment, causing the whole boat to shake violently. "What the—?"

The vessel shook again, and before the gang could collect their wits, the loud voice of the captain roared at the bow of the ship.

"Avast! What d'ye think ye be doin', ye manged scurvy dog!?"

"Silence, fool!" a young man's voice responded with a haughty scoff. "Rejoice, for you and your ship are hereby commandeered in the name of the Emperor of the Abyss!"

The gang shared a long, startled silence, but then they sprang to action and rushed out of the commons room, with Josh leading the charge. When they arrived, they found the captain on the ground nursing his cheek. In front of him, near the bow of the ship, stood a man in his early twenties. He was in his Abyssal form and sported a pair of large wings sprouting from his lower back. As for the rest of his body, his legs and torso were covered in greenish, round scales, while his head had a single curved horn jutting out of it.

His face was youthful, with a haughty grin plastered on his face, and his blonde hair was fashioned into an enormous cowlick that covered the hornless side of his forehead. Upon noticing the group, his smile widened even more, and he let out a grating chortle.

"Kahahaha! How wonderful! I didn't expect to find such fiery young conscripts at such an unlikely place!" He made a vague gesture towards the gang and exclaimed, "Count your fortune that you met me, for you are now drafted to the glorious cause of House Ninurta!"

"What kinda daft rot be spillin' from yer gullet, ye bilge-sucking barnacle!?" the captain roared as he rose to his feet again, much to transformed Abyssal's irritation.

"I said silence! The days of Ninhursag are finally behind us! Swear allegiance to House Ninurta now, or bear the consequences of going against the Great Emperor's decree!"

In the meantime, Josh poked Snowy and asked, "House Ninurta?"

"I-I think the Ninurta family are the leaders of the Elders Council in House Ninhursag, but… They aren't a Noble House, just a branch family."

"Meaning, we're walking into a coup," Judy commented, notepad at the ready. "How convenient."

"Plot hook!" Angie added on with almost childish glee.

While they were whispering to each other, the newcomer let out a loud harrumph and pointed at Josh.

"You, lad! Stop standing around, and prepare to move out! Every able-bodied man and woman of fighting age is to join the glorious revolution, and you're no exception! I'll even allow you to one day boast to your children, and your children's children, that you were personally recruited by none other than the great Hareng Asag Ninurta himself!"

"He really wanted to say his own name, didn't he?" Elly whispered, and Judy casually nodded along while taking notes.

Before any of them could respond though, the captain straightened his back, readjusted his tricorne hat, and then bellowed out, "Avast there, ye lily-livered landlubber! Ye be on me ship, and there'll be no shanghaiin' while I draw breath!"

"Stubborn old man! Don't you realize?! Your ship and your life all belong to House Ninurta now!" the one-horned Abyssal roared back as he raised his hand over his head. His nails, or rather his fingertips, shimmered for a moment before suddenly jutting forward, forming five huge claws ready to strike down the defiant captain in front of him.

His swing made an eerie whistling noise as his talons cut through the air, ready to maim and disembowel everything in their path, yet the grandiose display only resulted in a sudden, hollow metallic clang.

"What the…?"

The man's eyes opened wide in the face of the round shield that seemingly materialised out of nowhere, with Josh braced right behind it. He managed to insert himself between the two of them in the blink of an eye and blocked the incoming strike, but he apparently didn't have a follow-up planned in advance, because he remained stock still even as the clawed Abyssal reeled back.

The momentary lull popped like a bubble when Deus asserted herself and yelled out, "Boy, be careful!", and it was at this point that he let his shield down and balled the fingers of his free hand into a fist.

It wasn't a particularly skilful strike, and even the most semi-competently trained combatant should've been able to dodge or guard against it. This Abyssal… he wasn't.

Josh's fist dug right into the defenceless left cheek of the Abyssal. And then he flew. Right over the bow of the ship, and then into the waters below, and none was more shocked by this development than the guy delivering the punch himself.

"Argh! Why did you do that!?" Deus yelled out again as she rushed to the railing at the side of the boat. "I told you to be careful when you hit him! We need to interrogate him!"

"I didn't hit him that hard!"

"Then why did he fly over the deck?"

"How the heck should I know? Maybe he was light. Like a bird, or something."

While the two bickered, Judy let out a soft sigh and gestured for Elly. My draconic girlfriend responded with a curt, "On it!" before donning her Magiformer, sprouting wings, and then diving after the man in the water.

"I think we just entered into an internal conflict on the side of House Ninhursag," Snowy noted on her right, sounding just a tad dispirited.

"It seems so, yes.

"Does this mean we'll need a new plan?" Ammy asked on her left.

"Probably."

"That means we might get to do a frontal assault after all! Yay!" Penny exclaimed on the side, and this time Judy didn't respond.

All in all, things were rapidly and irrevocably spiralling out of control. In other words, business as usual.